A multicenter study of sleep-wake rhythm disorders: therapeutic effects of vitamin B12, bright light therapy, chronotherapy and hypnotics

OBJECTIVES: To compare the single and joint effect of 1-year diet and exercise intervention on carbohydrate metabolism and associated coronary risk variables. DESIGN: Unmasked, randomized, 2 x 2 factorial intervention trial with 1-year duration for each participant. SETTING: The participants were recruited from a screening examination of 40-year-old persons in Oslo, Norway. SUBJECTS: Two hundred and nineteen sedentary men and women, with diastolic blood pressure 86-99 mmHg, HDL cholesterol < 1.20 mmol L-1, triglycerides > 1.4 mmol L-1, total cholesterol 5.20-7.74 mmol L-1 and BMI > 24. Participants were randomly allocated to control (n = 43), diet (n = 55), exercise (n = 54) and diet+exercise (n = 67). INTERVENTIONS: Exercise: supervised endurance exercise three times a week. Diet: reduce weight, increase the intake of fish and reduce total fat intake. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: One-year changes in insulin and glucose before and after a standardized glucose load. RESULTS: As compared with controls fasting insulin in pmol L-1 decreased significantly in the combined diet and exercise group (3.9 +/- 6.2 versus -22.6 +/- 4.7 respectively, P = 0.003). Insulin in pmol L-1 after glucose load decreased significantly in all intervention groups compared to controls (diet: -82.2 +/- 49.9 P = 0.02; exercise: -92.4 +/- 60.1 P = 0.03; diet + exercise: -179.6 +/- 46.1 P = 0.0004). Fasting glucose in mmol L-1 decreased significantly in the diet alone group (0.21 +/- 0.07 P = 0.006) and in the diet+exercise group (-0.26 +/- 0.08 P = 0.005). In a subgroup analysis of the good responders, the observed changes with respect to total cholesterol (-0.76 mmol L-1), HDL cholesterol (0.16 mmol L-1), triglycerides (-0.72 mmol L-1), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (-8.5/ -6.8 mmHg) were all statistically significant compared to the control with P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Exercise and diet intervention and in particular the combination of the two, were effective in improving carbohydrate metabolism. Associated risk factors were also affected in a beneficial direction.     

Regulation of myosin phosphatase by Rho and Rho-associated kinase (Rho-kinase)

The small guanosine triphosphatase Rho is implicated in myosin light chain (MLC) phosphorylation, which results in contraction of smooth muscle and interaction of actin and myosin in nonmuscle cells. The guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-bound, active form of RhoA (GTP.RhoA) specifically interacted with the myosin-binding subunit (MBS) of myosin phosphatase, which regulates the extent of phosphorylation of MLC. Rho-associated kinase (Rho-kinase), which is activated by GTP.RhoA, phosphorylated MBS and consequently inactivated myosin phosphatase. Overexpression of RhoA or activated RhoA in NIH 3T3 cells increased phosphorylation of MBS and MLC. Thus, Rho appears to inhibit myosin phosphatase through the action of Rho-kinase.     

Automatic inspection of diode pellets

In order to automate the human visual inspection process in the diode production factories, we construct an experimental computer system with an image digitizing circuit and a microscope. Based on the statistical decision theory, we formulate six mathematical functions for the six major defects frequently seen on diode pellets.On one thousand good samples we calculate various statistical parameters, with which another 800 samples are tested. The correct answer ratio is 94 percent, if the human decisions are assumed correct. Detailed investigation indicates that about one-half the split decisions comes from the human errors, whereas the other half comes from computer error. The final hit ratio increases to about 97 percent. We conclude with a proposal for a practical inspection system.     

A multi-modal dialogue analysis method for medical interviews based on design of interaction corpus

We propose a multi-modal dialogue analysis method for medical interviews that hierarchically interprets nonverbal interaction patterns in a bottom-up manner and simultaneously visualizes the topic structure. Our method aims to provide physicians with the clues generally overlooked by conventional dialogue analysis to form a cycle of dialogue practice and analysis. We introduce a motif and a pattern cluster in the designs of the hierarchical indices of interaction and exploit the Jensen–Shannon divergence (JSD) metric to reduce the number of usable indices. We applied the proposed interpretation method of interaction patterns to develop a corpus of interviews. The results of a summary reading experiment confirmed the validity of the developed indices. Finally, we discussed the integrated analysis of the topic structure and a nonverbal summary.     

Relation between the superstructures and the tree deterioration in polypropylene

The initiation and growth of the electrical tree in crystalline polymers are influenced by the superstructure. However, there are still many unclear points in the relationship between the tree deterioration and the superstructure (spherulites). To study the relationship between the tree deterioration and the spherulite, we designed the measuring apparatus which allows simultaneous observation of these phenomena. The sample was set on the stage of the polarizing microscope to make observations of the tree initiation and growth in polypropylene. This paper reports the results of some observations concerning the tree initiation and growth in polypropylene with 60-Hz ac voltage. The results are as follows:

• 1 Prior to the initiation of trees, a fine deterioration zone is formed on spherulite surfaces. Thereafter, the discharge occurs along the spherulite surface, and the trees occur.
• 2 Tree shapes change under the influence of the distribution state of spherulite.
• 3 Tree initiation voltage is 5.8 kV for the spherulite inside and 5.1 kV for the spherulite boundary, respectively.

     

Kinetic relationship between NO/N2O reduction and O2 consumption during flue-gas recycling coal combustion in a bubbling fluidized-bed

Flue-gas recycling combustion of a sub-bituminous coal and its rapid pyrolysis char at 1120 K has been simulated experimentally in a bubbling fluidized-bed. O₂, CO₂ and H₂O, and NO or N₂O were pre-mixed and fed into the bed together with coal/char particles with the O₂ concentration in the exit gas maintained at 3.5 vol%. Increasing the inlet O₂ concentration, thus increasing the O₂ consumption rate and decreasing the flue-gas recycling ratio, caused the once-through conversion of fuel-bound nitrogen into N₂O to decrease while the conversion to NO to remain unchanged. The in-bed reductions of NO and N₂O were both first order with respect to the respective nitrogen oxide, with the rate constants to increase linearly with the rate of O₂ consumption in the bed and thus also with that of char/volatiles consumption. This finding, which indicated linear increase in the concentrations of reactive species involved in NO/N₂O reduction with the rate of O₂ consumption, enabled consideration that the homogeneous and heterogeneous reduction rates of NO and N₂O were proportional to the consumption rates of O₂ by the volatiles and char, respectively. The rate analysis of the kinetic data revealed the relative importance of burning volatiles and char as the agents for the reduction of NO and N₂O. While the reduction in the gas phase was fully responsible for the NO-to-N₂O conversion, the reactions over the char surface governed the NO-to-N₂ reduction. The volatiles and char had comparable contributions to the reduction of N₂O to N₂. The NO-to-N₂ and N₂O-to-N₂ reductions over the char surface were, respectively, accelerated and decelerated by increasing the H₂O concentration.     

Fabrication of highly efficient full-color electroluminescent device composed of nanocrystalline silicon

We fabricated a highly-efficient full-color electroluminescent device composed of nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si). High luminance red, green and blue luminescence from the device was achieved by using hydrofluoric acid solution and oxidation techniques, because these techniques lead to reduction of both nc-Si size and P(b)-center on the surface, which is related closely to luminescent color and luminance, respectively. Moreover, direct current (DC) operating voltage on red/green/blue light emission of the device was realized at a relative low value below 10.0 V by controlling the thickness of the oxidized layer on the nc-Si surface. These results are a strong indication that the device developed in this study can be adapted to future flat panel display and illumination fields.     

Distributed dynamic pricing based on demand-supply balance and voltage phase difference in power grid

This paper discusses a distributed decision procedure for determining the electricity price for a real-time electricity market in an energy management system. The price decision algorithm proposed in this paper derives the optimal electricity price while considering the constraints of a linearized AC power grid model. The algorithm is based on the power demand-supply balance and voltage phase differences in a power grid. In order to determine the optimal price that maximizes the social welfare distributively and to improve the convergence speed of the algorithm, the proposed algorithm updates the price through the alternating decision making of market participants. In this paper, we show the convergence of the price derived from our proposed algorithm. Furthermore, numerical simulation results show that the proposed dynamic pricing methodology is effective and that there is an improvement in the convergence speed, as compared with the conventional method.